President Donald Trump fired Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman from the White House on Friday after the…
- Trump fired Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman from White House
- Vindman was escorted out of building Friday afternoon
- ‘I’m not happy with him. Am I supposed to be happy with him?,’ Trump said
- Vindman’s twin brother Yevgeny Vindman, a National Security Council attorney, was also fired and escorted out of the White House
- Vindman was first White House official on July 25 call to testify in the House’s impeachment inquiry into the president
- He said he believed Trump acted ‘improper’ on call with President Zelensky
- Vindman will be told as soon as Friday he is being reassigned
- He joined the National Security Council in July 2018
- Trump has indicated he will retaliate now that he’s been acquitted
- Senator Mitt Romney is expected to be another Trump target
- Republican senators, who are allies of Trump, are investigating Hunter Biden
President Donald Trump fired Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman from the White House on Friday after the war hero testified against him in the House impeachment inquiry.
Vindman was escorted out of the building this afternoon and told his services were no longer needed, CNN reported.
‘Today, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman was escorted out of the White House where he has dutifully served his country and his President,’ his attorney David Pressman said in a statement. ‘He does so having spoken publicly once, and only pursuant to a subpoena from the United States Congress.’
He indicated Vindman was fired for his testimony to the House.
‘There is no question in the mind of any American why this man’s job is over, why this country now has one less soldier serving it at the White House,’ Pressman said.
Vindman’s twin brother Yevgeny Vindman, a National Security Council attorney, walked off the White House grounds alongside him. He was also fired.
Earlier in the day, the president did not deny the reports of Andrew Vindman’s imminent dismissal.
‘I’m not happy with him. Am I supposed to be happy with him? I’m not,’ he said to reporters at the White House on Friday who asked him about Vindman.
Vindman, a National Security Council aide, oversaw American policy on the Ukraine in his role on the NSC.
Vindman, who received the Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq, had told officials at the NSC that he intended to take an early exit from that assignment and leave by the end of the month, sources told the newspaper, but Trump wants to make a symbol out of the Army officer now that the president has been acquitted by the Senate.
He was appointed to the position in July 2018 and expected to stay for two years.
But White House aides told Bloomberg News that Vindman and other NSC staff were being reassigned as part of a move to shrink the foreign policy bureaucracy.
Vindman, a Ukrainian immigrant whose father brought his family to the United States from the former Soviet Union, testified in the House impeachment inquiry after receiving a subpoena from Congress.
The president has privately fumed about Vindman’s testimony, according to reports, and that fury has not waned in the wake of his acquittal.
‘Lieutenant Colonel Col. Vindman and his twin brother — right? — we had some people that — really amazing,’ Trump said during a celebratory event at the White House on Thursday.
Vindman was the first White House aide who was on the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to testify in the inquiry.
Dressed in his full Army dress uniform, he told lawmakers that he believed Trump acted ‘improper’ on the call.
At the time of the call, Vindman reported his concerns that President Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden, particularly Hunter’s work for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
‘I was concerned by the call. I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. Government’s support of Ukraine. I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma, it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained. This would all undermine U.S. national security,’ he told House investigators.
Additionally, White House aides are weighing to remove or reassign other officials who testified.
Jennifer Williams, who worked for Mike Pence and testified in the House impeachment inquiry, left the vice president’s office for a new position in Central Command.
Her exit came two months ahead of a planned March departure.
Trump also fired a warning shot to Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. The West Virginia senator hails from a state the president carried in the 2016 election. Trump has tried to woo Manchin to the Republican Party with no result.
Manchin voted to convict Trump on both charges in the Senate impeachment trial, which the president took note of. He also noted Manchin’s fellow West Virginia senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, voted for his acquittal on both charges.
‘I was very surprised & disappointed that Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted against me on the Democrat’s totally partisan Impeachment Hoax. No President has done more for the great people of West Virginia than me (Pensions), and that will always continue,’ the president tweeted Friday afternoon.
‘Every Republican Senator except Romney, many highly religious people, all very smart, voted against the Impeachment Hoax. @SenCapito was all in (a great person). I was told by many that Manchin was just a puppet for Schumer & Pelosi. That’s all he is!,’ he added.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney, who voted to convict the president on the abuse of power charge, is also expected to feel Trump’s wrath.
On Thursday, during his acquittal celebration at the White House Trump told Sen. Mike Lee – the other senator from Utah – to deliver a message to the people of that state: ‘Tell them I’m sorry about Mitt Romney.’
‘We can say, by far, Mike Lee is the most popular senator in the state,’ Trump said.
When he announced his decision on the president Wednesday, Romney said he expected the Trump to retaliate.
‘I’m aware that there are people in my party and in my state who will strenuously disapprove of my decision, and in some quarters I will be vehemently denounced. I’m sure to hear abuse from the president and his supporters. Does anyone seriously believe that I would consent to these consequences other than from an inescapable conviction that my oath before god demanded it of me?,’ he said during his speech on the Senate floor.
Trump slammed Romney for using his faith to justify his decision during his remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning.
He did not mention Romney name but his meaning was clear.
‘I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,’ the president said.
Romney, a devout Mormon, cited his faith as one of the reasons for his guilty vote. He voted to acquit the president on the second charge: obstruction of Congress.
‘The allegations made in the articles of impeachment are very serious. As a senator juror, I swore an oath before god to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am. I take an oath before god as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the president, the leader of my own party would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced,’ Romney said.
The White House has indicated the president is in a vengeful mood.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told Fox News Channel Thursday that people would ‘pay’ for what they’ve done.
She noted the president was ‘going to talk about just how horribly he was treated and, you know, that maybe people should pay for that.’
The Senate will aid the president in some of his desire for revenge.
Two powerful Republican Senate chairmen revealed they are cranking up a probe of Hunter Biden’s travel in the minutes after the Senate acquitted President Trump of abuse of power over his own conduct toward Ukraine.
The president makes Hunter Biden a frequent target of his mocks during campaign rallies.
The Senators, Charles Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, released a letter they wrote to Secret Service Director James Murray seeking documents on the former vice president’s surviving son immediately after the acquittal vote.
They wrote that they are ‘reviewing potential conflicts of interest posed by the business activities of Hunter Biden and his associates during the Obama administration’ particularly in Ukraine and China, where he had business dealings.
They are seeking information on any security detail provided to Hunter Biden, as well as travel aboard government aircraft.
Their letter underlined that the president is getting the investigation he wanted, after his request for the president of Ukraine to do him a ‘favor’ and investigate the Bidens and the 2016 elections prompted a House Democratic impeachment inquiry.
Democrats called it cheating and inducing foreign interference in the U.S. elections, but Republicans said it was not an impeachable offense. Every Senate Republican other than Mitt Romney of Utah voted to acquit, and Trump brandished headlines of his acquittal at the congressional prayer breakfast Thursday morning.
The letter explains that senators are reviewing transactions by Rosemont Seneca Partners, a companyHunter Biden formed in 2009 along with Christopher Heinz the step-son of former Secretary of State John Kerry.
‘We write to request information about whether Hunter Biden used government-sponsored travel to help conduct private business, to include his work for Rosemont Seneca and related entities in China and Ukraine,’ the senators wrote. The mentioned Hunter Biden’s trip aboard Air Force Two along with his father to China in 2013.
During the trip, he reportedly arranged for the CEO of a Chinese firm, Jonathan Li of Bohai Capital, to shake hands with the then-vice president, and ultimately landed a business deal.
These Rat’s should have been fired from the beginning of the Trump Administration! How many more of these Moles are still hard at work to sabotage the American People. I say to President Trump…Please do not stop emptying the Rat’s Nest! The House Managers state that President Trump has not learned his Lesson!…I believe He has learned it very well and will expose them and their plan to Overthrow our Government…I believe they call that Treason!…and demands more than just a slap on the Hands! Hopefully every one of them will be investigated to the fullest!
Maybe the Vindman Bobbsey Twins can find a job at Burisma as shoe-shine boys. As for Romney, “a devout Mormon”? More like a jack Mormon. One who says he’s devout – but not really. Like he’s a Rhino. He purports to be a Republican – but not really.
The Biden-Heinz-Kerry-Pelosi gang is an incestuous bunch. The main characters enriching themselves with their high government offices, while forcing their kids onto corporations and foreign governments for which they had zero qualifications. It’s like a medieval king making his 13 year-old son general of the army. Who’s going to complain? (You ain’t gonna get no billion dollars if…)
I can say ” It’s about time ” we need to clean house in the entire government all the people that have even a hint of left leanings should be expelled from all government service and all of their worldly possessions confiscated. Dose that sound harsh ? Well think of what thay will do to us if thay were ever to gain power thay believe thay are entitled to.